2 Maccabees 12:38 "Then Judas assembled his army and went to the city of Adullam. As the seventh day was coming on, they purified themselves according to the custom, and they kept the Sabbath there."

Judas and his army prioritized keeping the Sabbath, even during a time of war, because they knew how essential it was. Keeping the Sabbath holy is part of proper worship, and proper worship is the thing that keeps everything else in order, even in times of great chaos.

Why, then, do we often fail to remember to keep holy the Sabbath in the way that we should, even though we are living peaceful lives and have all the time and freedom necessary to worship properly? I think that the answer to my question is actually in the question! We are so blessed with our freedoms and our standard of living, we often stop prioritizing God. We convince ourselves that our children's sports or other obligations are more important than keeping the Lord's Day holy.

We also tend to rationalize this failure to keep Sunday holy, telling ourselves that God understands, when in fact He has made it quite clear that He wants us to worship properly on the Sabbath. This is not because He needs our worship, but because we need to worship! When we stop worshiping God, we start worshiping something else, whatever we prioritize over Him. That is the beginning of chaos in our lives, and if enough people stop worshiping God, it invites chaos into society. We can see that around us right now.

So let's remember to keep truly holy the Sabbath, not in a perfunctory way, but because we recognize our need to prioritize God, just as Judas and his army did. When God is in first place in our lives, everything else falls into place as well.